In reversal, Sheena Morris' family rejects finding of suicide

Thursday

Kelly Osborn says she "came to her senses" and now questions prosecutor's arguments that there is no evidence of murder.

For a few hours Wednesday, Kelly Osborn's faith in her daughter Sheena Morris ebbed.

Osborn and her family received a powerful, emotional presentation from the prosecutor in charge of the “Sheena case,” Assistant State Attorney Arthur Brown III, and the state agents who spent 14 months investigating her 2009 death.

The presentation included charts and crime scene photos of Osborn's daughter, presented on an easel. Morris' family was not allowed to record the meeting.

Afterward, Osborn hugged and thanked the lawmen and then drove home to Tampa.

She told the Herald-Tribune she had accepted that her daughter took her own life, and was thankful for the professional investigation that she had wanted for nearly five years.

But a few hours later — after discussing the meeting with Sheena's father, Dave Morris, who flew to Tampa from his New York home to attend the briefing — and with her husband, Osborn said she “came to her senses.”

Osborn and her family started to question some of the very emotional arguments Brown had made, especially after reading the 21-page memorandum the prosecutor had written for the case. That document was not given to them during their meeting at the State Attorney's Office.

Brown's report, which was based on an investigation by special agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, states that investigators found “no evidence of a homicide.” It includes interviews with other forensic experts, in addition to snippets of information that Brown gleaned from several homicide textbooks.

But the report prompted outrage in several camps with a stake in the Morris case:

• Friends of Morris say FDLE agents twisted their words.

• Questions have been raised about the medical credentials of a Canadian expert who Brown used to critique the findings of some forensic professionals employed by Osborn.

• The prominent polygraphist who first administered an examination of Morris' former fiance Joe Genoese bristled at questions raised by an FDLE polygraphist about his performance.

Osborn says that Brown's report reads more like an argument against others who concluded that Morris' death did not appear to be suicide.

“I do not agree. It's my assessment of the evidence,” Brown said. “There was no evidence to support that she was unconscious before she was hung. There were no injuries, no drugs and low blood alcohol.”

Brown said he has never included citations into any so-called “decline memo,” and had to educate himself as best he could.

Witness criticisms

About the same time Morris' family was questioning the prosecutor's findings, calls started coming in.

Some of the people named in the report, including several of her daughter's friends, told Osborn that what FDLE wrote about conversations they had with agents was not right, was taken out of context, or both.

FDLE agents accused Justina Jones, a longtime friend who has known Morris since age 12, of providing “inconsistent information” about Morris' state of mind.

Jones denied knowing how Morris met her former fiance or where she worked, the agents reported, even though Jones lived with Morris and dated Morris' manager.

Jones said Thursday the agents erred, twisting her statements from different periods of her life.

“They combined multiple time-frames into one statement, which makes it false” she said. “They did what they pleased with the information. They got it wrong. Sheena was murdered.”

Another of Morris' friends said agents told her that her name would remain private.

“They never said it would be released to the media,” the woman said.

The agents asked her about Morris' reaction to the 2008 suicide of a friend, Matt Kennedy.

“Sheena talked about it — why he would do it, but his death didn't affect her as they wrote,” the woman said. “Sheena was curious about it, but I never told them it affected her. They pumped it up — the seriousness of it.”

The woman requested that her name not be used in this story.

'Me against them'

During their meeting with Osborn, neither Brown nor the FDLE agents would comment about how Bradenton Beach Police handled the initial investigation, participants said.

“At first I accepted what they said, that this was a suicide,” Osborn said. “But it seems more like they just worked at disproving the facts — my facts — each point I had. I think they're covering for Bradenton Beach police. It's always been me against them. Now, I don't have anywhere to go.”

There are other concerns.

In his memo, Brown attacks the medical experts retained by Osborn.

But one of the medical experts that Brown cited, Canadian Dr. Anny Sauvageau, Alberta's chief medical examiner, is not trained as a forensic pathologist, although she has written a book about autoeroticism.

Brown wrote that Sauvageau is considered “the leading expert in North America on hangings, and has studied the topic extensively since 2004.”

According to a 2012 story in the Calgary Sun, Andrew Baker, a forensic pathologist and president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, questioned Sauvageau's appointment as Alberta's chief medical examiner, asking why “anyone in a top post — be it in the U.S. or Canada — would not have the highest level of training available.”

In a letter to the Sun, published Dec. 8, 2012, Donavon Young, assistant deputy minister of justice services for Alberta's justice and solicitor general, defended Sauvageau's 2011 appointment: “It is important to note that when she completed her residency in anatomical pathology in the early 2000s, forensic pathology was not a specialty in Canada. The forensic pathology program in Canada began in 2009.”

He also noted that Sauvageau helped create the exam administered by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons to all doctors in Canada seeking certification in this area. “She is not eligible to take this exam because of her role in authoring it.”

Brown said he was not aware of any concerns about Sauvageau's credentials.

The prosecutor said he did not send Sauvageau a case file to examine, just quotes from the report of one of the forensic experts that Osborn hired to examine Sheena's death.

Feola, according to Brown, criticized the questions Trimarco asked, stating they were “not appropriate nor generally relevant test questions,” and that they were “designed to evoke emotional responses based on their very wording.”

Brown said he never obtained copies of the questions that Trimarco asked Genoese, relying instead on Genoese's recollections of questions that were asked of him during the exam.

Trimarco, who was the chief polygraphist of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office from 1991 to 1998, has performed more than 1,100 criminal polygraphs related to FBI investigations.

Those cases included the Unabomber, the Whitewater investigation and the bombings of the World Trade Center and the federal building in Oklahoma City. Trimarco has also performed numerous classified examinations involving foreign terrorists.

Feola has been a polygraphist for seven years.

According to his website, Trimarco has attended more than 50 polygraph training seminars conducted by the FBI or professional polygraph organizations and taught at federal, state and local agencies; national and state polygraph associations and private and professional groups.

Feola received her polygraph certification through a program held at the Northeast Counterdrug Training Center, operated by the Pennsylvania National Guard. The program was developed by the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Area Community College.

Trimarco took issue with Feola's characterization of his work with Genoese.

“I've never heard of her or the school where she got her certification,” Trimarco said Thursday. “I'm very disappointed in Ms. Feola for making those comments without even calling me or asking for my records.”

Trimarco said he is also reporting her “misconduct” to the ethics boards of several polygraphy associations, because Feola cannot criticize his exam and then conduct her own.

“That's bias,” Trimarco said. “If she wants to be critical of my exam, she should have someone else do the exam.”

He called Feola's critique of his questions “ridiculous and troubling.”

“For her to have said they were emotion-evoking questions — every relevant question I've asked since 1990 is emotion-evoking,” he said. “Mr. Genoese was clearly deceptive — it wasn't even close. The results were reviewed by another former FBI polygraphist in San Francisco — a quality control review. He concurred.”

Genoese did not return calls seeking comment.

Quest's end

Osborn said her search for justice for her daughter is over, although she is not satisfied with the results.

“I've taken this as far as I can,” she said Thursday, at a news conference in the front yard of her Tampa home.

“I hope Bradenton Beach Police never does this to another family,” Osborn said. “Law enforcement has the final word. They did it and justice has not been served. I know for a fact Sheena didn't commit suicide.”

Osborn, along with Sheena's father, Dave Morris, said they have been hearing from more than 5,000 supporters via Facebook and their “Justice4Sheena” website.

“They're saying it's a sham, a travesty, we all know the truth,” Osborn said. “We know who this investigation was for. I believe Sheena was murdered and there is still a murderer out there.”

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